Dead Planet
by MandoGirl22
Summary: On the planet of the dead, no one will hear you scream... Part 1 of 2
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

_Colonist planet A1-0001, located on the outskirts of Imperial and Republic Space…_

The scientist was running through the hallways of his laboratory, trying to avoid the creatures who had overran the colony in a matter of hours. He was clenching his bleeding shoulder, he had been bitten by one of them and he knew that he had a matter of minutes before he became one of them.

How could this have happened? Did they mess up on the formula? He didn't know, he should have never agreed to do this. He didn't know anything about the flower that was sent to him and he should have done research on it before doing anything to it.

He walked into his office; pass a lone red orchid that sat in a vase in a glass container. Its petals seemed to twitch when he walked passed, as though it had sense his presence but it was just a flower, it had no thoughts or emotions.

He walked over to his desk and started to go through the drawers trying to find the small container that carried the flower, it had have something that was on it that would tell him what the flower was called and where it was from. He kept looking up as he searched, not wanting them to find him and eat him like the rest of the colonist, which was something he didn't want because they swarmed the victim and ate them alive, and ripping them to shreds.

There! He found it! He picked up the container and turned it over so that he can read the label and what he saw made him sick to his stomach.

_Name: Faberian Orchid aka Red Orchid._

_Planet: Faber_.

Of all the planets in the galaxy that this flower could have come from, it had to be from the planet that no one knew anything about. The habitants that called Faber home weren't exactly open about their culture and society, and thus this wasn't much known about them.

He placed the container on his desk with a heavy sigh; there was nothing that he can do. He knew nothing about the flower and thus can't make an antidote for it though he is too late, he could feel the effects of the infestation going through him. It was killing him, changing his body as it did so.

His eyes rolled back into his head and fell out of his chair, falling in a heap next to his chair. His was spasming and twitching as he died and then finally he stopped moving, drool and blood coming out of his mouth and his eyes were closed.

A finger twitched after a few minutes and then his eyes snapped open, revealing dull eyes and tight pupils that were common for the creatures…


	2. Chapter 2

1

_Unknown colonist planet, located on the outskirts of Imperial and Republic Space…_

_Victory_-class Cruiser Judgment_ in-bound…_

_3,666 BBY…_

The colonist planet belonged to the Republic and Empire; a large and long wall separated the two colonies apart. Near the wall were two towers, the towers that had turrets were put there to keep either side in their own colony in order to keep the two sides from fighting. The colonist on the planet harvest plants that were used for medicine for the two warring sides, some of the plants that were harvested there belonged to other planets but were taken there because the soil was very rick in nutrient and the plants tend to grow faster here. The planet that the colonies were on was known as Colony planet 10001; its actual name is unknown lost during the colonists move to the planet.

The Faberian _Victory_-class Cruiser, _Judgment_, came out of hyperspace above a planet. The black hull of the ship glistened and reflected the light of the stars off the surface. The ship design had a bulbous center section, with gun batteries covering the front, sides and stern, seven thrusters located on a ventral tower and a command tower on the dorsal side. Lining the sides of the ship were several hangars. In addition, at least one hangar was located on the dorsal hull, facing the "valley" in the middle of the craft. The _Judgment_ followed the Faberian color scheme with red stripes on black hulls. The ship class served as the heaviest and most powerful warship in the Faberian fleet, allowing it match the _Harrower_ Dreadnaught in terms of size and firepower but since it's only armored where its needed allowing it to be faster and more agile than the _Harrower_. Though the woman who ran this ship rarely came across any _Harrower_ since the _Judgment_ rarely left Faberian space, in fact if she had a choice in the matter she wouldn't be here at all she would be patrolling her sector of Faberian territory and making sure no outsiders entered their territory.

The _Judgment_ had intercepted a transmission from the colony planet before it reached either Republic or Imperial ships, a robotic SOS that was activated as soon as the outbreak had started and now the _Judgment_ and her crew was here to make sure that the outbreak didn't leave the planet.

A woman wearing the black naval uniform of an Admiral, she was walking down the corridor towards the second largest room it wasn't her office. The room that she was heading to was slightly larger than her office and it was only reserved for the most important person in her and the crews' life: The Empress Regnant, or the Regnant Empress. Sadly, there were others that didn't like her and wanted her dead just because her mother hated her and had been trying to kill her…the Faberians were divided and were at war, the True Faberians followed Marrika Nerys while the other faction followed her mother.

The civil war that had erupted on Faber will always be remembered, Raina thought as she walked. Their children and children's children will remember it and hopefully will do everything to prevent another civil war from happening on their home planet that hadn't had fighting on its surface for centuries.

Admiral Raina Picard hoped that she would live to see the end of the bloody civil war and to see Marrika sitting on the throne, her mother was insane and was doing things that would bring the Faberians to the attention of the Sith Empire. Raina's lip curled as she thought about the Sith Empire, the last time they had crossed paths was during the Great Sith War and the Faberians were almost completely killed by the Sith until the first Empress Regnant killed her father and crowned herself ruler before uniting the remaining Faberians to drive out the Sith. The current Royal Family are the descendants of the first Empress Regnant, a bloodline that will survive and that will continue to rule over Faber.

Raina lifted her hand and knocked on the door before she stepped back and clasped her hands behind her back, standing at attention as she waited for the woman within the room to open the door. A few seconds later, the door opened with a soft whoosh and Raina walked into the room. Like everything else that they use and make, their technology could only be activated through the Force this way only Force-sensitives could use their technology. The door opened with the subtle use of the Force from the woman within the room but the woman didn't stop what she was doing. The woman that she had come to talk was standing next to a table looking at the holo projector, her hands were resting on the table and bracing herself as her eyes scanned the projection before her. Her clothing consisted of a carapace-like armor that hugged her skin and covered every bit of it, including her hands, painted in dark ebony, with white stripes down the front side, a zipper running all the way up to secure herself, her thick hardened boots. The room looked like her room on Faber but the walls, ceiling and floor were metallic instead of wood as was the furniture in the room. The woman had designed it to look like her bedroom back at the Royal Palace to remind her of the vow that she had taken when she was leaving her home: she will fight against her mother until her mother is dead at her feet and Faber will be united once again. Raina walked over to the other woman and saluted her before she clasps her hands behind her back.

The woman looked up and smiled at Raina, "Hello, Admiral. Is there something that you need?" Looking at a face that was similar to her own features but there were some differences, mainly the fact that Raina wore an eyepatch and had facial scars, which she bore with a sense of pride. All the women of their race were attractive and have a slender and fairly muscular build, with a tanned complexion. They have long dark brown hair that has been pulled back into a long braid that they can wrap around their necks like a scarf, though Raina's braid was elegant yet severe, and almond shaped brown eyes. "Your Highness, we have arrived at our destination." Raina said as she bows at the waist towards the other woman.

Marrika pushes away from the table and crossed her arms over her chest as she turns to face the other woman, "Good, the sooner we get any surviving flowers and get out the better…Admiral, I want you to keep any and all Republic and Imperial ships out of this sector and when we are done, take this planet under our control…we do not want any anyone coming across this planet." Raina nods her head in understanding; she understood perfectly why Marrika wanted this done. The flowers that the colonist had belonged to them and was dangerous unless you knew how to harvest them correctly, and despite the heavy security in their spaceports a whole garden of these flowers had left the planet and gone to this colony.

"Yes, Your Highness…I will make sure no one gets in or out." Raina said though she doubted that there was any one left to leave the planet and she knew that Marrika knew that too but both women wouldn't say that out loud they didn't need to.

Marrika sighs heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes. "I will be going there alone...well, not alone but it is better if only I went down there because I do not want anyone else dying on that damn planet." Raina only nods her head, accepting and understanding the other woman's judgment. Marrika was right; it was too dangerous to send in a team down there so it was a logic thing to send just one person down there to gather data and get any surviving flowers. Both women doubted that any colonists had survived the outbreak but Marrika would save those people as well.

Raina looks towards the bed when she hears a gurgle and smiles when she sees the princess sleeping on top of the pillows, the baby girl kicked her legs but didn't wake up. Marrika looks towards the baby as well and smiled loving at her, she was the little girl's mother. "I finally got Natasi to go to sleep." Marrika said with a soft laugh causing Raina to laugh as well, despite the fact that this is Marrika's first baby; she was doing wonderful taking care of the baby and despite how she was raised by her own mother. Natasi was born not that long ago but true to the ability to heal quickly, Marrika was up and getting the next stage of the war done.

"Read her medical files, she is a very healthy baby despite being born in space and on a cruiser."

"Sadly the cruiser is a lot safer for her than anywhere else…but I am happy that she is health and was born without any problems."

Though giving birth was never pretty or easy, Marrika was in great pain as she struggled to push her child out of her womb but she was able to give birth and Natasi was welcomed the world with loud cries. Normally the birth of a baby would be celebrated with parties but given the fact that Marrika was an exile there was no parties. Though the crew did come during their break to see the new heir to the Faberian throne before Raina had sent them back to their post in order to allow mother and daughter to bond. Marrika had sent a message to her twin and cousin about Natasi's birth and had gotten messages back from the two women congratulating the new mother and tell her that they would see the baby whenever they get free time.

Raina looked back at Marrika and said, "Don't worry, I will make sure that Natasi is safe, Your Highness." Marrika smiled and placed her hand on her friend's shoulder, "I know, Admiral and I am grateful that I have a friend like you that is fighting with me and for me." The two women had known each other for a long time and Raina had proven her loyalty to her numerous times.

"Well, I never liked your mother but regardless of my feelings for her, I will continue to stand and fight with you until you are the Empress Regnant."

Marrika motions Raina to follow her to the docking bay and both women started to walk out of the room. As Marrika walked passed an opening, her slapped her gloved hand against her armored thighs. The faint clicking sound of nails of metal could be heard as whatever was in that opening was coming out to join the women.

A large canine-like canine creature peeked out of open and letting out a chirp before walking fully out of the opening and rubbed itself against all the leg of all three women. He was a Jha'dur, a hunting animal that was native to Faber. He was canine in appearance with the long narrow muzzle and pointed ears but there are some features that make him different than other canine-like creatures. He has orange eyes with vertical silted pupils that were quite disconcerting to other races. His chest is deep and his waist is narrow. He had extremely sharp teeth that ran along the length of his snout, with four fangs protruding over his lower lip, each ending in a double point. He has strong neck and jaws for carrying heavy objects. The Jha'dur paws have semi-retractable claws for extra grip in his high-speed pursuits. He has hand-ng purplish black tongue, which he uses to smell his prey when his nose to busy smelling something else.

His name was Nyx and was Marrika's companion, she had him since she and him were small. Faberians and Jha'durs are partnered when they are both babies because that would help them form a stronger bond with each other.

"I will contact you when I am done with my mission but while I am down there, I want you to scan all the frequencies to see if there were any survivors down there." Marrika said as she walked.

Raina touches two of her fingers to her forehead and said, "Yes, Your Highness." And with that both women went their separate ways. One heading to the bridge while the other head to the planet below, to an unknown situation.

* * *

The Low Altitude Assault Transport and Infantry Gunship broke through the astrosphere, flying towards the hangar bay. The Low Altitude Assault Transport and Infantry Gunship was a repulsorlift infantry transport capable of carrying up to thirty troopers. Secondary functions included reconnaissance, direct fire support, search-and-recovery, and low-altitude air-to-ground and air-to-air strikes against vehicles ranging from airspeeders to starfighters.

In addition to its trooper complement, housed on a deckplate protected by drooping wings and a sliding side door, the Low Altitude Assault Transport and Infantry Gunship could carry four military speeder bikes in an aft-deployable rack. The crew complement comprised a clone trooper pilot and co-pilot/forward gunner in the hunchbacked cockpit, and two auxiliary gunners stationed in pinpoint composite-beam turrets extending on articulated arms from the troop cabin. In the event of emergencies, the cockpit capsule could separate from the main craft to act as an escape pod.

The Low Altitude Assault Transport and Infantry Gunship was a fully armed gun platform, with a complete arsenal of weaponry that consisted of three anti-personnel laser turrets, two forward-facing, one covering the stern hatch; two top-mounted mass-driver missile launchers fed by rear-mounted ordnance belts and commonly loaded with short-range homing missiles, HE (high explosive), HEAP (high explosive armor-piercing), and APF (anti-personnel fragmentation) rounds; four composite-beam, pin-point laser turrets, (on some models, the slot for these Balls were inter-changeable with floodlights) two of which were automated bubble-turrets located on either wing; and eight light air-to-air rockets stowed on the underside of each wing.

Infantry gunships were equipped with atmospheric containment shielding and could be deployed from space, yet could not reach orbit altitude without a carrier vessel. The Low Altitude Assault Transport and Infantry Gunship's optimal fighting range was in the lower atmosphere, where they could reach speeds in excess of six hundred kilometers per hour.

Within the main cabin were various handles attached to cables hanging from the ceiling of the main cabin. When the gunship's hatches were open, clone troopers would hold on to these to help keep their balance while the gunship was in flight. In the case of rapid deployment, clone troopers could hang on to these as the cables were lowered to the ground for quick deployment so the Low Altitude Assault Transport and Infantry Gunship wouldn't need to land. However, during this process, both the troopers and gunship were vulnerable to enemy fire, so landing and debarking in the regular manner was the more common way to deploy troops.

The Gunship shook when it touched down; she stood up from her crouch and stretched feeling her muscles stretch, Nyx stretched as well and yawned hugely. Marrika looked down and smiled at the animal before she looks up at the cockpit and said, "When I get off the ship, I want you to leave and keep this gunship running!" The pilots acknowledge her orders with a salute and nod, Marrika opened the door and jumped out of the gunship with Nyx at her side. She looks up when she heard the soft humming of the gunship leaving; she watched to leave until she could no longer see it before she looks at Nyx with a smile when she saw that he was dancing next to her, his tail wagging.

"Come on, Nyx," Marrika said to her Jha'dur. "Let's go hunting." Nyx lets out a loud chirp, excited and eager to hunt. Marrika makes the hand motion for Nyx to go ahead of them, which Nyx lets out a loud squeal and shots out ahead of her, heading towards the door of the hangar bay but he skids to a foot. That told her that he had found something and she picked up her pace to see what he had found.

Nyx was sniffing around a puddle of dried blood but for some reason he wouldn't get any closer to it, making soft squeaking sounds as he did so. Marrika walked over to Nyx and kneeled down next to him, grabbing his leather collar and giving him the command to heel, which he did by lying down next to her.

"That's a big puddle…no one could have survived that but I see bloody footsteps leading away from it," Marrika said staring at the puddle and speaking into her earpiece, though she knew that no one would respond since it was recording, frowning a little.

Marrika stood up and looked around as Nyx sat down next to her, looking up at her. She crossed her arms over her chest as she cupped her chin with her free hand, brown eyes narrowing slightly in thought. She didn't look what she saw or felt so far, something evil lurked here but it wasn't revealing itself to her…yet. "Come on, Nyx." Marrika said patting her hand on her armored thigh, which caused Nyx to scramble to his feet and walk next to his master. She began exploring the hangar, looking to see where everyone was at, having noticed that no one had contacted them on their way down or came to greet them when they had landed.

Marrika walked through the door and walked up the stairs, she was going to explore the upper levels of the hangar bay. Nyx was a few meters ahead of her, sniffing the ground as his whiplike tail waved back and forth. Marrika had her sniper rifle in her hands and pointing ahead of her as she looked down the scope.

When she finally arrived in the last room on the upper level, she found a lot of dried pools and splatter of blood but there was no one, living or dead, in this building. Marrika turns to face towards the door as Nyx sat down next to her, his long tongue hanging out as he panted.

"Something isn't right here…no one can just disappear out of thin air and leave nothing behind to tell us that they were here." Marrika whispered lowering her rifle though not enough so that if anything should happen, she would still be able to defend herself and her pet.

She looks down at Nyx and made the hand motion for him to go ahead of them, Nyx makes a chirp-like bark as he scrambled to his feet and trotted out of the room with his master behind him. The woman and the animal walked out of the hangar, heading to one of the closest buildings. Marrika stops walking and looks around, taking in the ruined state that some of buildings were here in despite the fact that the colony that was built here was fairly new. But looking at the ruined state that the buildings were in, one would assume that they were here for years. _I wonder what secrets this planet holds_, Marrika thought as she looked around, before she looks away with a heavy sigh. Whatever had happened would be something that she would never forget and something tells her that she probably wouldn't like what had become of the people that called this planet home nor would she like what had caused them to become that way. She shakes her head and started walking again, catching up with the other two women and her animal. If Marrika had been paying close attention to the left corner of the hangar, she would have seen a figure standing there, staring at the woman with an intense hungry gaze.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 2

_In the Laboratory near the Hangar…_

Marrika had Nyx enter the building first; she felt that whatever had happened here wouldn't affect animals like it did with humans. She followed after him a few minutes later, searching the first floor first but like the hangar it had blood pools and splatters. Marrika frowns when she sees the pools and splatters but she has yet to see a body or anything though she knew better then to tempt fate because whenever she did that it always brought her what she wanted. And she hated that very much, it was so annoying. Marrika motions to Nyx to search the rest of the floor as she looked towards the desks, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Marrika walked away, having noticed something clear and shiny on the shattered remains of a table. It dawned her on that they were in the remains of a laboratory; she knew that she would find the answers behind the colonists disappearances here but not in this room probably in one of the rooms upstairs.

Marrika lifted up a glass vial that has some clear crimson liquid at the bottom of the vial as she gives Nyx the command to return to her. "The liquid looks familiar to me and I don't know why." She looks around for the lid of the vial and when she finds it, she puts it on and then puts the vial in one of the pouches on her belt. Marrika looks down at the Jha'dur and said, "Let's get going, Nyx…we will find what we are looking for here and then we will be able to come up with a plan on how to deal with it."

Marrika turns and headed towards the door that was in the back of the room, she walked through the door and up the stairs with Nyx a few feet ahead of them, his tail lashing back and forth as he walked and with his nose to the ground. His ears rotated and twitched as he sniffed, listening for and picking up sound that only he can hear.

Nyx pauses in front of a room, fur bristling, ears flying flat against his skull, tail curled up against the side of his leg and lip curled up revealing his sharp, knife-like teeth. Marrika stopped walking immediately; she stares at Nyx, immediately recognizing his posture for one of alertness and fear with a little hostility. There was something in that room that he didn't like; he was sensing something that they didn't.

Marrika closed her eyes and opened herself up to the Force, seeing if she could sense anything inside but there was nothing in that room. She then opened her eyes and nudged Nyx out of the way before she opens the door and looks inside, that wasn't as bad as the other rooms but there was some damage to it. Marrika cautious enters the room with Nyx was right behind her, she was cautious because the Force wasn't reliable sometimes and it can easily be tricked. She immediately tensed up when she had stepped into the room; something had happened here, something bad. Marrika could sense and smell death that seemed to cling to this building like a woman's perfume.

Marrika started to search the other side of the room when she sensed something touch her mind briefly, it wasn't Nyx who was standing right next to her because she knew how he felt in the Force and whatever touched her mind wasn't him.

She turns her head and her eyes widen in shock and surprise when she sees something that shouldn't even be here, that should have been somewhere else.

There sitting in a glass container with holes in the top was a flower with blood red petals, and with a black stem and leaves. It was a flower that only grew in the soil of Faber, which is probably what was in the vase that the flower was in. It was the Red Orchid or Faberian Orchid; it was Force-sensitive and was used for only healing. Marrika walked over to the container and placed her shaking hands on the sides of the container. Why was it here? It should not even be here. There was no way that this flower can grow anywhere expect in the soil back on Faber so why was it here?

Marrika pulled the tubes that were attached to the container that the orchid was in and lifted the container up, placing it down next to the vase. She lifted one of her hands and brushed the soft red petals with her fingertips, she could _feel_ the orchid respond to her touch by lifting its petals in response to her touch much like how a pet would respond when touched by its owner.

Marrika slips off her backpack, she places the backpack down next to the vase and quickly switched the orchid's vase with a smaller vase and then put it in a glass container, which wouldn't break no matter how many times she may drop her backpack. Marrika unzipped the backpack and placed the container inside then she zips it back up, she picks up her rifle. She walked out of the room with Nyx at her side, his fur was still bristled but he was silent.

Marrika had walked into the next room, this room was in a lot worse condition than the other room and it had a lot more items that were used for research and such. Whatever had happened here, she knew that they would find it here.

Nyx stayed next to his master's side like the loyal companion that he was as Marrika propped her rifle against the desk as she kneeled behind it, pulling a glowrod out of one of the pouches on her belt and inserts it into her mouth, her lips and teeth firmly holding it there as she opens one of the drawers. She pulls out a stack of flimsiplast and sits back on her heels, and she starts to read.

Marrika had just started to read them when she heard a soft beeping sound which had caused her to look up. Pulling the glowrod out of her mouth and putting it back into her pouch; Marrika stood up and grab her rifle before she walks over to where she heard the beeping from with the flimsy still in her hand. Nyx trailed after her, his tail swaying side to side as he walked.

Marrika looks at the counsel before her and saw a light flashing, it meant that there was a recording there. She hits a button before she takes a step back and crosses her arms over her chest; Nyx sat down next to Marrika with his tail wrapped around his paws. Marrika listened to the recording in silence; she can still hear his voice and the rustling of clothes and flimsy as he moved.

"We tried making the flower into a liquid so that it can better heal the patient that had agreed to be our test subject but we found that the liquid form of the flower is quiet poisonous with some unexpected side effects: it changed the patient." The rustling of flimsi could be heard, as though he was fingering through them. "As the head scientist, I felt that it was best if we locked the infected in a cell instead of killing it so that we can better study it. The creature retains whatever it looked like before it was infected. Additional facial appearances helped in identifying it. This consists of completely blank, rolled up eyes and tight pupils and a pale grey coloration."

He pauses before continuing, "It has lost all form of intelligence, with the exception of basic actions such as walking, biting, moaning, crawling and, running. It has a higher sense of hearing to determine where its prey would be. It seems to be able to determine whether anyone near it is infected or not. It has been proven to be blind and they have some recollection of intelligence left to not attack another infected or it only wants fresh meat of humans…us, the people who are still living and not infected."

He coughs, clearing his throat before he continues on, "It has superior strength. It is theorized that due to its lack of a sense of pain, its muscles are capable of passing the limits that living tissue can't handle. Now, although it has enhanced strength and cannot be truly killed by whatever means through the torso and limbs, an attack at the head be it projectile, melee, or well-placed hand to hand assaults will truly kill it, of course this is purely speculation since we do not want to kill it. Anyways, it is a lot faster than normal people and it is capable in great feats of jumping…almost as if it was Force-sensitive."

He pauses again and continues, he must like hearing his own voice Marrika thought. "While destroying its brain or spinal cord is the only true way to kill it, it appears to be more flammable than humans and die easily when set on fire, we learned this when we decided to make another one by using the liquid but the first one is still alive and well."

The scientist clears his throat and concludes his lecture, "In addition to all the rest, it is affected by electricity since the brain still works it can make it numb or kill it since it disrupts the electromagnetic signals from the brain to the body normally humans would require a very large amount of electricity for this to happen thanks to its strange condition it have lost many resistances that normal humans have, for example it can be set on fire very easily..."

The recording stopped, an eerie silence fell over the room before Marrika broke it by sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose. "I have said this numerous times and I will say it again: outsiders are stupid and should never be allowed anywhere near our planet."

This should have never happened, outsiders knew better than to touch anything that belonged to Faber but she couldn't do anything about it now, instead all she could to do know was to make sure be more open with their fauna at least and to warn them that some of flowers that grow on Faber should be dried first before making them into healing products. Especially the Faberian orchid that flower is very dangerous and it shouldn't have gotten out off-planet, not with Faberian security.

Something told her it was that bitch that did it, since there was only one person that can get pass the Faberian security. It would look like the bitch had completely unhinged and is now going to attack the rest of the galaxy. Marrika, of course, was talking about her mother though there was no love between mother and her two daughters, Namari and Marrika. The bitch had tried to kill them numerous times before, which had eventually led to the death of their father.

Marrika shakes her head in disgust, she wasn't going to let that insane bitch put their entire race at risk and if the Sith Empire thought the Faberian Empire was a threat then they will invaded Faber and wipe the entire race out, the Faberians were almost wiped out to extinction before and Marrika doesn't want to repeat that again or have the Sith Empire finish the job.

She jumps when she hears a loud bang and turns around lifting her rifle up, aiming it at the door behind her. Nyx scrambled to his feet and started to growl softly. Standing in the door way was a woman or it was a woman at one point, it had completely blank, rolled up eyes and tight pupils, and a pale grey coloration. Her lab coat and clothing were ripped; she had a bite mark on the side of her neck.

Looks like one of the infected finally decided to show itself and greet the living visitors, Marrika observed with a smirk as she cocked her rifle, which caused the creature to react and lunge at her with surprising speed. That didn't surprise Marrika, the Faberian Orchid wasn't like other flowers, and it was Force-sensitive and if not treated right than this can happen. It had happened before on Faber but they were able to fix the outbreak before it spread even further, the outbreak happened because of their last Regnant Emperor who thought he knew better than the healers and used the orchid in liquid form to heal some of his Royal Guard. That showed his daughter, Zyn Conor, that a male ruler would lead the Faberian race into a faster extinction.

Marrika brought her rifle up higher until the barrel of her rifle was in the creature's mouth, her finger rested on the trigger and said, "Bite on this, bitch." She pulled the trigger and the back of the creature's head blew out, splattering the wall behind it with brain and bone matter, and blood. The body fell back with a thud and Marrika looked at the barrel of her rifle before she darted out of the room just as another infected lunged at her; she responded by calmly lifting her rifle and blowing its brains out before turning on her heel and running towards the stairs that leads to the roof. Nyx lunged passed Marrika and tackled an infected, closing his mouth around the thing's skull and started to crush down, the skull exploded spraying brain and skull matter everywhere and Nyx released his prey. He followed after Marrika; she didn't have to worry about Nyx getting infected or anything. Jha'durs were immune to almost everything and the infection didn't affect animals, she also didn't need to worry about him infecting her when he licked her. Jha'durs had very clean mouths, their salvia affecting as a natural disinfect.

Marrika pauses long enough to close the door behind them and locking it before she runs up the stairs after Nyx. Marrika pushed open the door that lead to roof and looked around, though she knew from the stories that her grandmother told her the infected didn't like high open spaces, they cannot see where they are going and tended to fall over the ledge so they were safe until they decided to come down.

Nyx walked over to the ledge and looked over it, he lets out a whimper and Marrika went to join him, looking over the side. "That's a lot of infected people down there." Marrika breathed out, below them was numerous infected, walking around and looking for healthy prey...her.

She walks away from the ledge and sat down on the ground in the middle of the roof and Nyx walking over to her and lying down on her lap. She starts petting him in an absent minded manner, scratching behind his ears causing him to make a _twrr_ing sound, the tip of his tail twitched. Nyx yawns, his lips pulled back revealing his teeth and his tongue rolled out.

"Now how do we get down from here?" Marrika murmured as she cups her chin in the palm of her hand, a frown appearing on her lips. "Maybe we can climb down the side."

Marrika then shook her head and murmured, "I wouldn't be able to protect myself if I did that but I can always jump down, using the Force to cushion my fall." And that would give her the ability to protect herself.

She stood up, which caused Nyx to stand up and stretch. She didn't have to worry about Nyx; he was more than capable of handling himself and finding his own way down. Marrika looks up and sees a building on a high mountain, if there any survivors, they would be up there. That would give them the height to keep an eye out for their little infected problem. Marrika walks to the ledge and looks down for a few minutes before she jumps off, she reached deep inside herself and wrapped the Force around herself in a protective cocoon when she landed; she created nice size crater in the cement. Nyx landed next to Marrika before he lunged at one of the infected, crushing its head with his bone crushing jaws. Marrika fired her rifle at the infected that were close to her, making sure to that they didn't grab her or anything. She started to run towards the mountain that the building was on; Marrika hoped that there were survivors in that building but even if there weren't any survivors it wouldn't have been a pointless journey, she would need to find supplies and call for transport. Raina needed to hear what had happened here and together they would figure out what to do next.

Though both woman and animal had to fight their way through the horde of infected before they arrive at their destination, hopefully they will make it there without being killed or bitten but no one can never know for sure what lies ahead of them and Marrika was going to do her damnest to make sure that they all leave here alive and stop the infection from spreading to other planets…even if she died in the process but her daughter would pick up where she had left off.


End file.
